Square pegs in round holes: How do pediatric emergency medicine fellowship program directors fit graduates of emergency medicine residencies into their programs?

Objective: Pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) fellowship directors can interview candidates from either pediatric or EM residency programs. Currently, most candidates are pediatricians; however, because emergency physicians have attributes that could benefit PEM, our goal was to investigate facilitators and barriers to training more of them to become PEM physicians. Methods: We surveyed U.S. PEM fellowship program directors (PDs) about their program's recruitment practices: Do they recruit only pediatricians or mostly pediatricians with an occasional emergency physician or do they actively recruit both? We solicited volunteers from each recruitment group for interviews. These were recorded, transcribed, and thematically coded using summative content analysis. Comments were cataloged into themes that were philosophical or logistic in nature and those that might facilitate (drivers) or serve as barriers (restrainers) to the inclusion of emergency physicians in PEM. Results: We received 50 of 86 (58%) survey responses, 29 (34%) of whom volunteered for interviews. The 17 volunteers we selected for interviews generated 13 themes that fell into the four major theme categories: four philosophical drivers, three logistic drivers, two philosophical restrainers, and four logistic restrainers. Program groups differed with regard to the inclusion of emergency physicians. Most limiting were the impact of variable program length and the implicit belief that pediatricians are best suited to treat children. Most beneficial is the recognized value of EM graduates to the field of PEM. Conclusions: While PDs acknowledged a growing need for PEM physicians, particularly in community hospitals, and that emergency physicians would contribute to PEM, they also identified the logistical burden of including them in programs primarily designed for pediatricians. This burden involves maintaining separate curricula for EM graduates and finding emergency physician faculty to serve as mentors. PDs also expressed a desire for resources to guide the integration of more emergency physicians into their programs.